JLA: The Obsidian Age, Books 1 and 2 (11th and 12th TPBs, 2003) [Spoilers]

A story so big it filled two TPBs: Book 1 includes JLA 66-71, and Book 2 holds JLA 72-76. What happens in brief: the JLA go back in time to ancient Atlantis to rescue Aquaman, and become trapped there (and then). A new JLA is formed, chosen by Batman (who always has a plan, even when he's 3000 years in the past), and the rest of the story goes back and forth between the old group in the past, and the new group in the present.

Cool things:

Hawkgirl in the new JLA--well, the eleven-year-old, who adores Hawkgirl, was pretty happy about this! :)

Noted:

Green Lantern's new costume is all right (although I liked the old asymmetrical one), but the new haircut? Not so much.

I am not a big fan, generally speaking, of Life Changing Experiences in comics. Not because I object to change (well, sometimes) but because these changes rarely last even through the run of the writer who made the change, and almost never into the next writer's work.

"Awwww!" moments:

Wonder Woman helping Batman recover from his time-travel jet lag illness:



Faith telling Nightwing about what Batman said about him:



"Ew!" moments:



The idea of live birds in one's mouth literally made me queasy. Ick, ick, ick!

Things that made me laugh:

Green Lantern's dream sequence, the part before the visions. Interesting take on his fellow team members:



The "nurses" the injured Green Lantern creates for himself:



This scene with J'Onn trying to help Green Lantern figure out where his dreams are coming from. I'm not sure why GL is the source of so much humor this time around--maybe to balance out the rest of his role:



Green Arrow. The guy makes Plastic Man look like a charter member of NOW:



And speaking of Plastic Man:



Green Lantern:

One of the threads running through the story is Green Lantern's seemingly-precognitive series of dreams and visions regarding the mission, and the way he (someone not used to receiving information in this way) deals with them.

As when they're about to go into the past and he makes a half-hearted attempt to stop the trip:



And when they've made their journey, and he tries to see if anyone else shares his foreboding:



Most touching, I think, is this scene where he sees that regardless of what he does, things are going to play out in the tragic way he has foreseen:




Plastic Man:

Here's where the aforementioned Life Changing Experience thing comes in. Unlike the other JLA members, Plastic Man did not die in the past and return to life in the present. He was destroyed in the past, broken into pieces, and survived at the ocean's floor for 3000 years. (Hey, I said there were spoilers!) The JLA recovers the pieces in the present day and help him to reform himself. Plastic Man, therefore, has had 3000 years alone in his own "head":





On the one hand, you'd expect that over 3000 years one wouldn't be anything like the same person--on the other, it's not as if he's had any new experiences/input, so perhaps the broader changes would be less radical. I do like his new priority, and I'm glad they're addressing this issue (although I would have hoped it'd take something less than this to get him to go see his kid). Of course I'm not particularly thrilled to see him leave the group.

The Villain:

Although the team fights a group of enemies, the real villain is Gamemnae, a mighty sorceress and queen of early Atlantis. Very powerful, very evil, she battles the group in the past and the present alike.

At the back of Book 1, there is a commentary section. and here's a bit of what artist Doug Mahnke says about creating Gamemnae:

We had a lot of difficulties with her separating the Ancient version from the Modern one. She should have been prettier as the Ancient; we kind of uglied her up too much.

Elsewhere in the commentary section:

...by forming the Ancients and killing the JLA...she slowly becomes corrupted and sells away pieces of her soul to the dark sorcery that fuels her powers.

I'm a little unclear on what he means about her needing to be "prettier as the Ancient". Here is Gamemnae, clearly drawn to be beautiful, as she first appears, in the ancient world:



And here she is in modern times, as the present-day JLA find her:



My impression on reading the book is that it seems as though her beauty or lack of it is supposed to reflect the degree of corruption (the more evil she gets, the uglier she gets). That's what the commentary implies. This doesn't work all that well, for a couple of reasons. First is that as far as I can tell, she was pretty evil to start out with--evil and beautiful. Second is that the change in appearance seems to have more to do with her taking in power than with her evil. (The beauty was a tool--once she didn't need it, once she had enough personal power that she no longer needed to get what she wanted from others via coercion or seduction, she shed it without a backward glance.) She doesn't begin to transform until she has begun to incorporate others within herself, and you see very little of that during the Ancient World parts of the story, but that's not a change in her good/evil status per se.

In any case, while Gamemnae is certainly nobody's role model, I did find that one aspect of her pretty cool. Being willing to abandon her traditional beauty when it no longer served her needs, because she herself only valued it for what it could get her (and once that was no longer necessary she quickly went with a more efficient plan)? To abandon the ability to make her gains indirectly through the good will or desire of others? To abandon what others surely saw as a primary characteristic because in truth it had little to do with her essential (evil, ruthless, self-centered, single-minded, power-hungry) self? That makes quite a statement. It is, I think, intended to indicate that she is divorcing herself from humanity/Atlantis at that point--but that happened long before this.

Who Wants to be a Superhero [Spoilers]

The girls and I watched this tonight--first episode, I think. It's set up in what I guess is the typical reality-show format of participants being eliminated over time until the last one left is the winner (I don't usually watch reality TV so maybe I'm mistaken on this). But I've always thought Stan Lee was a hoot, ever since I was a kid reading his column and enjoying his work in Marvel Comics. So we put it on.

It's fluff, so I was more interested in watching the kids watching it. They quickly decided who had a terrible name but was otherwise cool ("Cell Phone Girl"), who had a terrible persona and the sooner they're gone the better ("Monkey Girl"), who had a good costume ("Nitro G" but only because they thought he looked a little like Green Lantern), and--in the eleven-year-old's opinion--who was just awesome for some reason, go figure ("The Iron Enforcer", or as they refer to him, "Gun-for-an-Arm Guy"). The seven-year-old likes the ones she perceives as nice, or funny ("Cell Phone Girl," "Fat Mama," "Lemuria," and "Major Victory").

The test this episode had the heroes having to quickly and inconspicuously change from street clothes into costumes, the fastest one being the winner. The real test, though, was that the show had planted a little girl in the scene, crying about being lost and unable to find her mother--those heroes who took the time to help the young actress passed this test. FYI, 3 out of the 5 women stopped to help, 1 out of the 5 men did, whether this indicates genuine helpfulness or the ability to recognize the child's presence as part of the test, I don't know. I will say that after this test, both of my girls now have a much higher opinion of those who stopped to help, and any who didn't they are very annoyed with, including Nitro G (despite their fondness for his costume).

Oh, and the eleven-year-old wants me to point out that Stan Lee was wrong when he stated that "superheroes don't kill," citing Punisher (who she's only seen in animated cartoons) and Wolverine (who is of course ever-present).

Not more action figures

So I'm checking my Bloglines feeds this morning, and the folks at About Heroes posted a link to this review of another Batman figure from the Mattel DC Superheroes line, this being from Series 3. Now, we already have the Batman from Series 1, but I'm seriously thinking of getting this one because, honestly, the Series 1 version sucks. It sucks bad. Series 1 Batman is permanently hunched over in a Quasimodo-like manner, which greatly reduces his playability. Series 3 Batman has evolved the ability to stand upright. (Envisions an "Ascent of Batman" tableau...)

But what are we going to do with two Batman figures? We do have two Wolverine figures, but since Wolverine is often battled over ("but she had him last time!"), that's not all bad (besides, that's one for the Avengers and one for the X-Men).

Two Batmen? Hard to rationalize that one.

Unless we go all pre-Crisis and one can be the Earth-2 Batman.

Otherwise we are probably at a halt on the action-figure-gathering front. Anything else we might be interested in is beyond what I'm willing to pay for these things (these are toys, we only collect them in the sense that we have a bunch of them all in one place--they are here to be played with). But I'll keep an eye on this line of toys in future. I hope Mattel does like the Marvel Legends folks do and makes some of the more obscure characters as well, not only the most mainstream ones--although they may not, since DC Direct may have that market covered.

Am awaiting the Rann-Thanagar War TPB today. I'm told it's gut-wrenchingly awful.

Books to find room for

We have been reading the TPBs at our house lately, some of which I'll probably talk about eventually, some of which I won't. I've been trying to figure out all that Infinite Crisis stuff. So far the best I've seen has been Identity Crisis and Villains United (surprising since it features a cast made up almost entirely of characters I've never heard of).

So the eleven-year-old and I went to our local B. Dalton the other day so I could get OMAC Project, and she chose one of the Teen Titans TPBs, and of course I read it because it's a comic book and it's in my house. She wants more, which will make shopping for her upcoming birthday much easier. (The one she chose is the 4th in the series.) For those of you currently weighing the pros and cons of having kids, here's one for the pro side: if you're lucky they can be an excuse to buy more comics!

She is still convinced that she doesn't choose her favorites based on age, and while I think this may be true of individual characters (she loves Ms. Marvel), when she chooses books she often goes for the teen titles (Teen Titans, New X-Men). I'm not really sure what the difference is, and I don't think comic writers now are any better at writing teenagers than they were when I was a kid--but I suspect that it's more often the pre-teens that like the teen heroes, anyway. (Kind of like how readers of Seventeen magazine are generally younger than that--actual seventeen-year-olds who are interested in that stuff generally go after the adult magazines like Glamour. Or did when I was younger. Which I will grant was some time ago.) She does seem to lose interest when the characters take on specific roles, particularly when they are parents, but doesn't seem to see much difference between a teen character and a young adult character.

(Regarding teen heroes, I read Legion of Superheroes as a kid, but honestly it was pretty rare that they were presented as teenagers--they didn't look particularly young--and of course eventually they aged them and they were in fact adults. For a while.)

I'm still not sure of the best way to store these--keeping them in longboxes (although these days we get shortboxes, easier for young ones to carry around) seems kind of silly, so I will probably try to dig some shelf space out somewhere. We have many bookshelves but they are pretty much all full.

Plastic Man - JLA: Golden Perfect (10th TPB, 2003), Part 2 [Many Spoilers]

"Bouncing Baby Boy"

Yes, there are spoilers here, lots of them.

In this story, Plastic Man goes to Batman for help dealing with the child of an ex-girlfriend, Luke, who is running with a bad crowd, hoping that Batman can "scare him straight." Batman agrees, for some reason. Here they meet with Luke's mother, whose relationship with O'Brian is fairly hostile, and it's easy to see why:





Luke's mother (Angel) pauses when Batman asks about his father, but Plastic Man says nothing, and she tells him what she tells her son--that the father is dead. It soon becomes apparent that Luke is in fact the son of Plastic Man, with whom he has had virtually no contact, and who has presumably no idea that Plastic Man is his father.





Now, I don't think that Plas is technically a deadbeat dad--you can infer from information provided elsewhere



that he does send money to Angel. He tells Batman that he's never been married, so the check is clearly not alimony--and the only other kind of check one might send to an ex would be child support. So I'm assuming that he sends money on a regular basis to help with the boy's upkeep.

Not that this mitigates the act of abandoning the kid emotionally and leaving Angel to do all the parenting, but it does indicate that he's not a total sleazebag. (Just fairly close :)) Going back to my previous post, I think this has something to do with the change in Plastic Man there--that with this story coming up in which he really acts like a heel, the authors may have wanted to build up to that a bit--show some hostility to and mistrust of women in general, to be explained here by his very dysfunctional relationship with Angel? Make him less sympathetic to make it more believable that he would do something like this? I don't know.

They do try to put it in a better context



and give some possible reasons for it; someone particularly fond of Plas can say that he stayed away from his kid because he was afraid he'd be the same sort of father his own dad was, and that's pointed toward but it's obviously not the whole of the story. My own opinion, as someone who does like the Plastic Man character, is that there was really no need for the build-up, showing Plas in a bad light (hell, he has always been shown to have an irresponsible side!)--otherwise-nice people do crap like this all the time. It's surprising, yes, as it is in real life, but honestly there's nothing in his past characterization to say that he would never, ever run away from familial responsibility. He doesn't have to be shown as worse than he has been to make this believable.

I also found Batman's reaction interesting:



not only because it is a rare instance of Batman not being all-knowing, but because it's a well-balanced reaction--he isn't going to give Plastic Man a walk on this--he obviously feels that this behavior is reprehensible--but he's also not going to interfere, although he will encourage Plas to "do the right thing""





Just as Angel did, he gives O'Brian a chance to come clean, but doesn't force it when he doesn't.



As someone who is a parent, my initial, superficial reaction is to think "Plastic Man's a jerk!" (And still enjoy the character, just with that extra aura of jerkiness. :)) However, as someone who--for many years--was single, childless, with my whole life ahead of me and many plans to explore--I can find some sympathy (particuarly since--as a parent--I know what a resource sink children are). My guess is that Angel and O'Brian never had "the talk"--you know, where you sit down with your partner and figure out what you'll do if "it" happens. This is important, not because you have a plan (because chances are that things will look different when parenthood is looming than they did when you were secure in your non-pregnancy) but because you've addressed the issue and each knows how the other feels about it. No wonder they fight.

And is no parent better than a less-than-optimal parent? O'Brian seems to think so--although I suspect there may have some relief involved as well once he felt he had a good reason to stay away--and he may well lack the self-esteem to feel he could overcome his own childhood, despite the fact that he has overcome so much of his past already. All that said, he now knows that Luke knows that he is his father, and that has to make a difference.

There's no resolution here. That's appropriate. That's realistic. What isn't realistic is for this story not to be addressed again--and I hope it will be.

JLA: Golden Perfect (10th TPB, 2003), Part 1 [Spoilers]

Includes JLA issues 61-65. First, a main story arc in which Wonder Woman, bearer of the magic lasso of truth and guardian of same, is faced with equal but conflicting truths, and the concept of truth itself begins to break down as a result. Second is a single-issue story featuring Plastic Man, which I'm going to discuss in a separate post, following this one.

I do have a couple of things I wanted to comment on specifically regarding this story. First is characterization. According to the splash page in the first included story, this issue introduced a new creative team to the book, and while the differences in Wonder Woman's behavior are directly plot-derived (and presumably will not last beyond the needs of the story), the changes in Plastic Man are not.

All right, Plastic Man has always* been portrayed as something of a dog. He has always been easily distracted by a pretty face or form, and he could definitely use a seminar on sexual harassment. He does some truly tacky things when he lets the wrong head lead:



So yeah, not an enlightened kind of guy. But he has generally not been presented as so hostile--he's certainly been portrayed as a sexist, but not, really, as a misogynist. Until now:



My theory is that this was build-up for an upcoming story--the one I'm discussing in the next post--in which he shows some pretty reprehensible behavior--I guess I'll figure out whether this is a good guess when I read the stories that come after that. It would also be arguable that this is an aspect of personality left over from the "old O'Brian"--the thug persona that comes to the fore in "Divided We Fall" when he is split into Plastic Man the hero and O'Brian the small-time crook--but if so I think the characterization fails.

Another thing that struck me with this storyline was Diana's lasso and just how it works. I was always under the impression that Wonder Woman's lasso brings out what people believe to be true, functioning as something of a lie-detector (regardless of why it works, that has been how it works). It appears to force people to tell the truth as they know it--as they believe it. After all, they can't tell what they don't know, and I don't recall ever having seen a scene where someone wrapped in the lasso suddenly has access to information they lacked previously. It can only draw out truth as filtered through the person. I may be mistaken here, but that's what seems to happen. And in that case, why is it that it's so confusing to Wonder Woman that the boy's mother and Rama Khan gemuinely believe two different yet contradictory things to be true? This can't be the first time she has encountered something like that. If the "truth" Diana finds via her lasso is subjective, you'd think she'd be used to it by now. I guess we put it down to unusual circumstances and the influence of her emotional state. Truth is a sticky concept at the best of times, so I'll be forgiving here.

:) But it's something to think about.

* "Always" as in throughout this run of JLA, I haven't seen him elsewhere.

Cool things:



I liked this very visual representation of a telepathic conference among the JLA members, in which apparently each individual's "appearance" is consistent with their inner self (or, possibly, their self-image)--Wonder Woman wearing her heritage as a chiton, wrapped up in her lasso (wrapped in the truth, so to speak), J'Onn of course in his native form, Superman combining his dual identities by wearing his cape over his farm work clothes, Flash in motion, Plastic Man fluid and impermanent, and Green Lantern, consciously heroic, in armor.

Things that made me laugh:

Flash's quick exit when faced with Green Lantern's impending crisis:



Batman multitasking while sparring with Wonder Woman:



Okay, I have tried and tried, and I have been totally unable to think of anything the Flash could have been planning to say next that would have been remotely appropriate for a married man...

JLA: Terror Incognita (9th TPB, 2002) [Spoilers]

Includes JLA issues 55-60: one main story arc (battle with the reawakened white Martians); "Bipolar Disorder" (battle with the villain Polaris, who has been "jokerized", which I assume is explained elsewhere but which seems to consist of its victims taking on the Joker's appearance and thought patterns); and a Christmas story starring Plastic Man.

Cool things:

Green Lantern holding off a nuclear blast with his ring (damn!):





Superman's dog--although I'm a little confused since I thought DC got rid of every non-Superman Kryptonian living being twenty years ago? (Is Kandor back as well?):



Batman and Green Lantern arguing over the best strategy to take in fighting Polaris:



Of course in the end it turns out that Batman was right, because Batman is (almost) always right, but Lantern's willingness to question him is a step in the right direction. The "new guy" thing can only be interesting for so long.

Things that made me laugh:

Green Lantern's faux pas:



Flash's challenge to Superman:




Things that made me laugh that really shouldn't have:

Granted that you're probably not doing your best thinking in the middle of a combat situation, but still...






Silver Age moment:

Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern pulling the moon out of orbit and bringing it into the earth's atmosphere so that there would be oxygen. So that there could be fire. So that the White Martians could be defeated (hey, it says "spoilers" in the title). This is the stuff that makes even me suspend my rich supply of disbelief for a moment. (The kids? Don't even blink an eye. I wouldn't have either at their age.)

Superfriends moment:



I'm really not being snarky here--what I mean is that this is one of those points in the comic where the nostalgia kicks in a bit. I actually never watched Superfriends as a kid--we got two television stations, CBS and CBC, and Superfriends was on ABC--but I did see it a couple of times in syndication, and one thing that did make an impression on me was the coming together, the calm after the conflict, at the end of the show, which was pretty common in cartoons of that era, presumably so that kids didn't worry about what happened to Scooby after the credits rolled.

My husband, on the other hand, did watch it as a kid, and has strong opinions on Wendy and Marvin and why they were allowed anywhere near Supervillain Central. But I digress. :)

"Ew!" moment:



No commentary here, just, ew. :P

Wish I had a local comic shop...

Some of the comic blog talk today has to do with comic shops--specifically, going into comic shops if you're a woman. Apparently it's not always a positive thing, having a local comic shop. (See here and here.)

Now, I remember when we had a local comic shop, fifteen or twenty years ago. (These days the nearest is 100 miles away.) First in some guy's basement, and eventually in a store near the university--the kiss of death, I assume, having to pay shopfront rent, because it didn't last long there, and he sadly didn't reopen at home (we're mostly a rural area here, and specialty shops rarely survive). I went there a number of times and was never treated impolitely, never talked down to, never pointed toward the "girl books" (granted that that may have been an unknown concept at that time), always greeted in a friendly manner, always allowed to browse in peace*, always answered helpfully and courteously when I did have a question, never challenged or given the evil eye about my purchases--in other words, treated like someone they actually wanted to come back someday to spend more money!

But I hear so often about people being treated poorly in comic shops, and not just women (who are apparently encroaching on male territory just by being comic fans in some areas). I have to wonder why some of these shop owners bothered to open a shop in the first place--if all they really wanted was a members-only club for talking comics, there are far easier and cheaper ways to go about that. Treating the customers (even only select customers) like crap is not the route to business success. I can see how a shop like this might do well if they're the only game in town (although not necessarily, online shopping makes it easy to get away from bad local entrepreneurs), but if there's any competition at all, you have to wonder. Generally speaking I'm all for supporting local business, but I'm no masochist and if I'm treated poorly I'll go somewhere else. I've worked retail, and I know what I think about "the customer is always right" (ha!), but I also know how little effort it takes to be polite under most circumstances, and there's really no excuse for treating a business like an exclusive club where you half-expect to see a bouncer.


* Which might have been counted a bad point by some who prefer a more hands-on treatment by sales clerks--personally when I am shopping I generally know what I want, and I want them to leave me alone unless I actually ask for help. I'm talking to you, J.C. Penney clerk who pounced on me two seconds after I walked through the door!

Must-see TV

Although I probably watch more television than I'd care to admit to, I don't make a habit of planning to watch anything in particular at any particular time. Well, okay, Venture Brothers I make a point of watching, now that the second season has started. But usually even things I like, I don't remember to watch. However...

According to Newsarama, Marvel honcho Joe Quesada is due to appear on The Colbert Report in a few weeks. I watch Daily Show regularly, Colbert Report semi-regularly, but will make a point of staying tuned on the 27th.

I'm assuming that his appearance is not so much because Stephen Colbert is a comic fan (although you never know) as because of the ongoing Civil War storyline(s) at Marvel, which bear some resemblance :) to current real-world privacy/security issues. I'm looking forward to seeing this. (BTW, I'd put money on Colbert's on-air persona being on the side of registration, although I'm not sure what the reason will be.)

I ::heart:: TPBs

You know, I don't know if I'd ever made clear just how much I love trade paperbacks, now that I'm back into the comic book thing.

The concept, anyway.

Back in the day ("the day" being the late 70s), when I decided I wanted to catch up on a new find (Legion of Superheroes comes to mind; I did occasionally get a back issue of Avengers or Fantastic Four, but with the reprint books going then--Marvel Triple Action and Marvel's Greatest Comics, respectively--it wasn't a priority), here's what I had to do:

1. Look through the ads in a comic book to find a place that sold back issues. (Back then, most of the ads in comics were small--there were a few half-page ads, even an occasional whole-page ad, but more often there were several columns of small classified-size ads on a page. They don't do that anymore, and I have no idea what ever happened to the many smaller comic-focused businesses that used to advertise there.) I don't remember the name of the place I settled on, but I believe it was in Canada.

2. Send off for their catalog and wait.

3. When the catalog arrived, make my choices. Most of these catalogs had no pictures, just long lists of comics and how much they cost at each grade. I usually got "Good" or "Very Good" if they had it (newer comics usually weren't available beyond "Fine")--I just wanted to read them, I didn't much care how they looked.

4. Send off the order and wait.

5. Tear open the box and read them all in an afternoon. No, wait, that's what I do now...when I was a kid, I had more patience (not yet having been spoiled by the internet) and actually took my time and savored each page, knowing that it would be a long while until I had more new material.

Now, however...

When I started reading Captain America starting at about issue 9 of the most recent run (because I never seem to get in on the ground floor of these things) I liked it, and wanted to read the first eight issues. This time around, though, all I had to do was order the trade paperback which collected the rest. How much easier was that? (Not to mention, how much cheaper?)

And I'd never be picking up on the JLA if it weren't for these books--which would be a real shame because I'm quite enjoying them. I realize that they're not really catching me up to the current state of things, but hey, at least I know that Hal and Barry aren't in the group anymore. I'm not planning on buying more for a while. I think I have enough of a grasp on history to follow things. (As much as that's possible at the moment--I suspect I picked a less-than-ideal point in time to discover DC...)

I gather there's quite a market of incredibly patient people who don't buy anything in single issues--they always "wait for the trade." But not every comic is turned into a book, is it? How do they know whether their wait will eventually be rewarded? And how long will it take? Brave souls.

In other news, the 11-year-old asked when the comics are coming. She's anxious to see the next Civil War books. Go figure. :)

JLA Alex Ross Action Figure: Plastic Man

First of all, we all love Plastic Man at our house, and the girls were thrilled when I pulled him out of the box!

He looks incredible

He comes with extra bits--a long stretchy arm, an arm with a giant hand, and a spring-shaped section you can attach instead of his legs. (Or such is the theory--there are no directions and I'm afraid to yank on him too much for fear of damaging him.) Wonderful details all around.

He's fairly posable--jointed at hip, knee, shoulders (which also rotate out) and elbow. The waist and wrists turn and the neck goes both from side to side and up and down.

So a positive review overall, tempered mainly by the obvious fact that he's primarily a collectible, not a toy--the joints are stiff at first, and the lack of instructions makes me think that no one really expects anyone to try out the extra parts.

And he's tall. He towers over any of the other figures. Well, he's Plastic Man, he can be as tall as he wants to be, but he looks like he's got at least 8 inches on Green Lantern, and that doesn't seem right. But again, no huge deal for this specific toy--however, I probably wouldn't get other toys in this series--in general--because of the height discrepancy. It's not always easy to find the scale when you're shopping, and the one place that did list it said that the Alex Ross figures were 6" in scale, which is clearly not the case for Plastic Man. I am seriously coveting Black Canary, but am not at all sure I want her if she's going to be scaled other than at 6".

DC Direct Shazam! Action Figure

That's what it says on the box, but of course it's in fact Captain Marvel, and comes with a tiny little Mr. Mind.

The kids, although they like Captain Marvel a good deal (he's a kid in his other identity, after all), were not thrilled with this one. He looks all right if you don't compare him to some of the other figures. He's less mobile than anything else we've acquired, jointed at shoulder, elbow, hip and knee (and no extended shoulder joint), and the head turns, and that's it. The body is a little blocky and the legs look a little spindly. The cape comes off easily, which is fine, and the figure has decent detailing--the embroidery on the cape is raised, and the boots are seamed, and you can see and feel the texture of the sash.

Overall playable and seems sturdy enough, but I'd have to think twice before getting another one in this series, and I'd definitely hesitate about ordering it online.

DC Direct JLA Action Figures: Flash and Green Lantern

These two are from the same series as the gorgeous Wonder Woman, and they did not disappoint the girls. They have the same limited-but-playable range of motion (knees, elbows, hips, and elbows, shoulders will extend out as well as go up and down, NO waist turning, neck turns back and forth, and Flash's head will also nod up and down). The Green Lantern is the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern. They both look good and seem pretty sturdy; Flash comes with a kid-sized Flash ring, and GL comes with a lantern for recharging.

And they look good. Flash's costume is pretty simple--not a lot of detail--but he looks like Flash. Green Lantern is wearing the third (?) version of his costume--the one with the collar?--and the stylized lantern motifs aren't just painted on, they're embossed into the surface. Green Lantern's hair is spiked up and looks reasonable.

And they are still shorter than Wonder Woman. I had assumed that they'd be taller (since they're part of the same series) and that she was only taller than the other ones because they're part of a different series--but both Flash and Green Lantern are, in fact, shorter than she is. That's how they planned it :).

(Oh, the pics are the 11-year-old's idea. She also took them.)

Getting your loved ones into comics?

Going through my Bloglines list today, I've been reading all the talk about Ten Books for Your Girlfriend, a guide for (male) comic readers who want to get their girlfriends into comics. There are plenty of links to commentary here on the When Fangirls Attack site.

Thought #1: I'm a girl who likes comics, and I haven't read anything on the list. Not really interested. Then again I've never claimed to have good taste in comics, just my own taste in comics, and I'm already predisposed to like superhero books (none of those are on the list, by the way, because "girls" don't like capes and spandex), so I'm sure I'm not the target audience. (Besides, if you're really trying to find a comic that non-comic-readers will appreciate, pick up Maus--that's the gold standard there.)

Thought #2: Why was the article written? Isn't it really a well-meaning albeit potentially misinformed effort? Well, this is the stated goal, verbatim:

For a male comic-book fan, there's nothing more aggravating than dating a girl who can't respect comics. While there are plenty of women who read comics, more often than not, guys end up dating gals not interested in their "hobby." You don't want to give up one love (beautiful comic books) for another (who gives you sex). Instead of choosing (or being emasculated each Wednesday), you can try and get your girlfriend into comics.

A couple of things come to mind about this.

First is that if your partner is "emasculating" you (by which I assume the author means being critical or belittling) every time you come home with a stack of comics, it's probably time to look for a new partner because that's unacceptable. (Unless you make a point of ragging on her as well when she gets out her crossword puzzles or woodworking equipment or whatever her obsession is, in which case the two of you have a pretty weird dynamic going there, but whatever.)

Second is that your partner doesn't have to share your passions to respect them. You can only like people who are just like you? That's a problem, isn't it?

Thought #3: The "well-meaning" aspect of this thing. Why, again, does the author believe that his reader wants his girlfriend to get into comics? Is it because this is something he loves that he wants to share with his partner and connect with her in that way? Is it because he really, truly thinks that she will enjoy comics if she's willing to give them a chance, and he hopes to bring her pleasure in that way? Well, no. Look at the quote--it's because (a) he wants her to quit complaining about his hobby (which she shouldn't be doing anyway, damn it) and (b) he wants to have something to talk about with her that he is interested in, the implication being that her own interests are less worthy. And if he can get her interested in comics, he won't have to hear her drone on about Hemingway or Dixieland jazz or Art Deco architecture anymore. Never mind that respect goes both ways...

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You know, my husband is comic-friendly but he's not a fan. He'll read them if they're in the house, and sometimes he'll ask whether the comics have arrived yet (we get them near the end of each month), but there's nothing in particular he asks me to order, and I really don't know whether he reads the whole stack, although I suspect not. I know he looks forward to Young Avengers and is disappointed when there's none in the stack (which has been the case lately more often than not :P) Sometimes he'll offer an opinion--he liked the story in the recent Spider-Woman mini-series but didn't care for the art (I didn't like either very much), but for the most part he just picks them up if he feels like it, doesn't if he doesn't, occasionally asks a question. I've never made a point of "getting" him to read them--we have plenty of interests that we already share to talk about, plenty of things we have in common. We just don't have to have everything in common. I wouldn't want him to twist my arm into taking up any of his hobbies, why would I find it appropriate to "get him into" mine. He's already taken as much of an interest in comics as he's going to, just because they're around--what would be the point of pressing the issue?

And yes, that's pretty much the way I approach it with my kids, despite the tongue-in-cheek blurb at the top of this blog--the eleven-year-old does make definite requests, the seven-year-old doesn't (but it would be a sad day if no Scooby-Doo was in the stack!), and when they arrive I give them to them and they read them (if and) when they read them. I'm pleased that they enjoy them, but if they decide they don't want to get them at some point, that's also all right.

JLA: Divided We Fall (8th TPB, 2001) [Spoilers]

Includes JLA 47-54.

So far, I think this is the best I've seen of this series. And not only because most of it is drawn by Bryan Hitch, whose work I've enjoyed so much on The Ultimates--he also has, clearly, a knack for more traditional books as well. And he draws some pretty, pretty men. But I digress.

I'm going to break this discussion up a bit this time. This volume includes three mostly-separate story arcs with a common undercurrent--trust issues--and I'm going to talk about them separately within the same entry.

First story

In which an evil queen escapes from an enchanted storybook, mistakes Wonder Woman for her old nemesis Snow White, and attempts to remake the world in her own vision.

Cool things:

Green Lantern's knowledge of the history of fairy tales, similar to the way (in the last volume) Plastic Man possessed an expertise on bees. In neither case is this information they particularly sought out as useful--both just happen to have learned it and retained the knowledge--but in both cases a character who isn't necessarily portrayed as highly intelligent is able to take information he already possesses and make use of it in a dangerous situation, showing an additional aspect of the character.

They have a "commlink", and are not relying on J'onn's telepathy for intergroup communication.

Those characters who do not have a background where they'd logically be familiar with the Grimm/Anderson fairy tales (such as the Amazon Wonder Woman and the Atlantean Aquaman) do not know about them.

Things that made me laugh:

Flash and Green Lantern fighting over who gets to kiss Wonder Woman out of her Snow White coma:



But not to worry, at the last minute they are saved by Aquaman:



Given the story in the last volume, where Aquaman inadvertently reveals his well-hidden desire for Diana, I wonder whether at some point when things calm down these two sit down and have a talk. Especially after this volume's emphasis on honesty, trust, and openness. Well, perhaps not...

Questions:

So when the world is returned to normal at the end of the story--when, presumably, all the fictional characters who've been wandering the world return to their media--does that mean that poor Green Lantern gets his disappearing drawings back?



One would hope so.

Second story

In which the team battles the villain Destiny, who has developed seemingly-unlimited powers.

Also in this storyline, the team struggles at least as much, if not more, with their own issues than with the villain. Green Lantern and Aquaman interpret one another's comments in the worst way possible:



Flash and Platic Man lose any semblance of teamwork in their battle:



While even the most mature and rational heroes on the team, Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter, have begun to show signs of incomplete trust in each other:



Meanwhile, Superman confronts Batman with the situation, blaming Batman's own lack of trust in his once-fellow team members for the team's current lack of trust in each other.



I'm not sure that Batman is making a real point here--it's not Superman who needs to prove his trustworthiness to the others, after all--but Superman seems to feel it is, and there's something to be said for not keeping these things secret from the people you trust with your life. (Although--having just read the Identity Crisis TPB--I'd say there are equally compelling arguments for keeping it secret from damn near everyone!)

Things that made me laugh:

The group's reaction to Superman's unmasking:



Third story

In which the trust issues kept just under the surface in the previous two tales come to the fore, and the team attempts to heal the rift by being more open with each other, revealing their secret identities. Soon after, they find that each member who maintained such a secret has been split in two parts, the super and the civilian identity. Meanwhile, inexplicable events are taking place all over the world.

I thought this was the strongest of the story arcs included in this book, although none were bad. The main story--the sixth-dimensional beings attempting to gain control over the wish-fulfilling entity called they call "Id"--is pretty good, but to me it was far less interesting than the split-identity premise. Each hero (apart from Aquaman and Wonder Woman, who do not maintain separate identities) is divided in two, one part with powers and the public persona's characteristics, the other with the private/civilian persona's characteristics and no powers, although it seems to play out differently for each character. This is what I found fascinating--the exploration of what each character seems to hold as that part of them that is exceptional.

Superman is divided, of course, into Superman and Clark Kent. As Superman he has his powers, of course, but what is it that Clark brings to the whole? Well, surprisingly, it's compassion and humanity. The Superman "half" is still a hero--still does good, is still an ethical being--but there is a distance there that wasn't there before. When, after his costume is destroyed in a fight, he changes it for a new, more (presumably) Kryptonian model, Wonder Woman suggests that he stick with the old one, saying that "with the world looking to us for comfort...this isn't the best time for a change." His reply: "It's not an issue. We have more pressing concerns than the emotion of the populace." Still a good person, but not the same person--not, any more, someone who relates to the people of Earth in as significant a way.

Batman. While the Batman persona retains the physical skill and intelligence of Batman, he lacks the drive he had as a whole person. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne attempts to enjoy the life of a wealthy playboy--he can finally go out on a date in the evening instead of spending it lurking on rooftops--but finds himself overreacting to things, becoming far more angry than situations call for. He wants to fight, but no longer has the ability.

Flash is a slightly different case. Unlike Batman and Superman, who adopt different personas (neither a mild-mannered reporter or a wealthy playboy are likely to be suspected of being a superhero) depending on whether they're in costume, Flash is pretty much the same guy regardless of whether he's on duty. Here the focus is on how his powers affect his personality rather than on any intentional change he may have made. And here, the Flash "half" keeps the powers and the go-go-go attitude, while Wally West is able to relax and take it easy (and, apparently, adopt something of a slacker mentality). And both Flash and Wally seem pretty happy with the way things are going.

Green Lantern seems to have been divided into potential and power. The Green Lantern half has the ring, and therefore the power. The Kyle Rayner half has the imagination--but, arguably, not the technical ability. He is unable to give his visions form. The reason given in the book is that he had grown accustomed to the superior creative potential of the ring and can no longer be satisfied with what he can do with traditional art forms; my own take on this is not that the ring is a better creative tool so much as that he now lacks the ability to create with any tool, a big problem since so much of what he sees as his essential self is tied up with his creative ability. Meanwhile, the Green Lantern half spends the entire book using the ring in exactly the same way--as an offensive weapon:



Martian Manhunter is divided into J'onn J'onnz and John Jones. I honestly found this one a little questionable, because you wouldn't expect J'onn's secret ID to have any real non-Martian substance. His uniqueness isn't based on the fact of his powers, it's based on his being an alien. Then again, I'm really only familiar with J'onn from the JLA books--never read anything about him in the Silver Age--so perhaps he does have a history of living a full life in human guise. The J'onn half keeps the powers and the alien viewpoint, the fear of fire and the loss of family. The John half has lost the telepathy and other abilities, but he has also lost the contant sorrow. He begs Aquaman to make sure that, if the JLA do figure out how to rejoin themselves, they leave him alone. (He also sits alone, lighting match after match and letting them burn down, a look of pure wonder on his face.)

Plastic Man. I'm always predisposed to like Plastic Man--the humor thing, I suppose--so this story's treatment of him was a real revelation. In the split, the Plastic Man half got the powers--and the humor. The Eel O'Brian half got the brains and forethought, along with any sense of appropriate behavior and boundaries. He lost, apparently, the impulse to be one of the good guys, and finds himself more and more drawn toward his "dark side"--his past as a petty criminal. He fights it, but is convinced that it's a fight he will inevitably lose, as the differences created by the split become more and more extreme--something he sees more clearly than do any of the others. I was impressed by this portrayal, by the fear O'Brian shows as he feels himself slipping back, of the genuine sense of menace when he's in "thug mode." A very different side to Plastic Man, and one that we now know lies buried underneath the frivolous surface--I like the character even more after this. Meanwhile, the Plastic Man half grows less and less stable, more difficult to work with, unable to hold a thought for more than a moment, likely to do anything if it strikes him as funny, even if unwise or inappropriate.

Although some of the heroes seem all right with the split (Martian Manhunter most of all, but Clark and Superman seem happy enough, as do Wally and the Flash), others find that their civilian halves are unable to make it through the day. And the split isn't a finished product--it's a work in progress, as the heroes and their other identities become more and more polarized. O'Brian sees this, and gathers the non-super halves together; the following exhange talks place between O'Brian and Bruce Wayne:







Overall one of the best things I've seen on what makes these people tick; as a relatively new reader, I was grateful for the peek into their psyches. If I was rating these books, which I'm not, I'd have to give this one a 9 out of 10. (The lost point is because there are some simple solutions that would have been better less eimple--Batman tells them he's Bruce Wayne and all of a sudden everything's all better? Not in the long run, I'm guessing.)

"Ew!" moments:

So when O'Brian gets the chance, he attempts to rejoin the heroes with their civilian identities. The results: